Malaysian Airline: Indians who went missing (profiles)

A 45 Year old married women, who was living with her family in Pune district but was from Beed district, was on Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 from Malaysia to Beijing

New Delhi, March 10: The missing Malaysian Airlines is a mystery and who would best know about it than the families of the passengers who are yet to come to terms with the truth.

On board were four Indian families too, some of whom were headed for a family reunion that was never meant to be.

Here are their profiles:

Kranti Shirsat (44): A resident of Bhugaon, close to Pune, Kranti was on board to North Korea to meet her husband, Prahlad, who heads an NGO there. A mother of two, she was an MSc graduate from Beed, and a former college teacher in Pune. The family resided in Tajikistan for a couple of years where Prahlad was posted. They then shifted to Bhugaon from where he took a posting in North Korea.

Chandrika Sharma (51): A social activist and an alumnus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), was going to Mongolia for a regional conference on food and agriculture, organised by the FAO. She was from Chennai.

Vinod Kolekar (63); Chetana Kolekar (59) and Swanand Kolekar (23): Hailing from Mumbai, the trio were headed for the convocation ceremony of their older son Samved (29) in Beijing. Samved had completed his PhD in astrophysics recently. Vinod was a former employee of an automobile major in Mumbai. This was Chetna's first flight.

Muktesh Mukherjee (42): A resident of Canada, he was the vice-president of the China operations of Xcoal Energy and Resources. He and his wife Xiaomo Bai were on the ill-fated flight. Interestingly, he is the grandson of Mohan Kumaramangalam, who was a minister from the Indira Gandhi government, and incidentally lost his life in May 1973.